Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to Norcod's Q2 webcast. My name is Christian Riber, I'm CEO of Norcod, and I will be presenting the Q2 numbers today, together with our Chief Commercial Officer, Chris Guldberg.
Hi, all.
To kick off with the highlights, there's been plenty of them in Q2, and we hope to produce more. But first of all, we've had quite a bit of a increase in our revenue, up with about 120% from the Q2 2023. Also, we have decreased our operating loss with about 34%, from about 70 million NOK down to 47 million NOK. Our production cost has gone significantly up, mainly due to finalizing our site, Jamnungen, in Q1. The majority of the volume being harvested in Q2 came from our joint venture location, Forså, together with Kime Akva, where the operation cost was higher. We have harvested 1,830 tons of fish equivalent, which is up 75% compared to last year.
We also have, as I said, completed our cycle at our Jamnungen site on Frøya with extremely good biological results, with a biological feed conversion rate of below 1 and an economic feed conversion rate up to 1.06. That's a result we're very, very pleased with. And if we can maintain that in the future, the future looks bright. Also, we are now entering a stage, as we say, we are entering a commercialization stage, where we're very, very focused on the commercial part of our business and the market.
Therefore, Chris will later in the presentation give a market and commercial update, which is an important stage for us. At the same time, we are very focused on streamlining our operations and also our financial performance. By the end of the Q2, we also finalized a new credit agreement with our bank, DNB, which have gave us an increase of 75 million NOK and a revised covenant structure, so we're very happy with that as well. Post Q2, we have completed the cycle at Forså, together with Kime Akva.
And also we have seen on a positive trend the market developing where we see more and more interest picking up from existing and new markets and from a lot of interesting clients. So an operational update. As I said, we harvested 1,830 tons during the quarter. Very little came from Jamnungen, which was finalized in the beginning of Q2, so the majority of the volume was harvested at Forså, up in North Norway. We've had a joint venture together with Kime Akva, which has been very interesting, giving us a lot of new production data from the northern part of Norway, compared to the middle of Norway, where we primarily self-operate. The completion of Jamnungen was done, as I said, in April, with a very, very good biological result.
We had a biological feed conversion rate at 0.98. We had a very, very healthy and strong fish. We had good control over maturation, which has been very discussed during the last 12 months. So all in all, very pleased with our production at Jamnungen. Also at Forså, we had a good result. The biological feed conversion rate at 1.07, which is, in farming terms, still a very, very good result, and an economic feed conversion rate at 1.21. A majority part of the fish harvested, both from Jamnungen and Forså, was a great quality, a good size fish, and over 95% was harvested as superior quality. During our second quarter here, we put the next fish at sea at the Frøya on Jamnungen.
Again, great results on land before putting them to sea. We've had a great start in Jamnungen, the fish started eating straight away after being delivered to the site, so we have a very good expectations to Jamnungen and the future cycle. Export volumes during the quarter. We exported 64% of the total volume exported out of Norwegian farmed cod. That's our volume combined with the joint venture volume of Kime Akva. And standing biomass at sea, we are at 49%, so we are sitting on approximately 50% of the biomass of farmed cod in Norway. On the financial side of things, it very clearly shows that we've harvested significantly more fish than prior, and we will continue to see this trend in Q3 as well.
We are harvesting every single month, every single week, and delivering fish to the market, which has been one of our targets from the beginning. We're very pleased with that. As previously addressed, we had a production cost at Jamnungen at just below 40 NOK, which was a satisfactory result. But we've seen an increase here in Q2, mainly due to switching sites from Jamnungen to Forså. Revenues are also significantly up since Q2 2023, and again, we will see the same trend continue in Q3 this year. Our cash and available credit at hand has gone significantly down from Q1 to Q2, mainly due to us continuous building biomass, where we built almost 500 ton during the quarter, and at the same time, we had outstanding obligations from Q1, which lapped into Q2.
On the biological assets, again, as we see, our biomass at sea has gone from six thousand six hundred tons up to about seven thousand one hundred tons, so close to an increase of five hundred ton. Which is a level which we will be maintaining over the year, which puts us in a position to continuous harvest month in, month out, and reach our harvesting goals for the year. We are on track to deliver the promised nine thousand tons of harvest volume for the year. In Q three, we have experienced very high sea temperatures, abnormal sea temperatures in the middle and northern part of Norway.
Therefore, we've chosen to handle our fish a little less, and therefore, we've harvested a little bit less volume so far during Q3. But we will bring that back during the end of Q3 and Q4, so we will hit our target of the annual volume harvested. If you look at the balance sheet assets, the assets have gone down, mainly on the cash side of things, and equivalently on the equity and liabilities. Our current liabilities has gone down significantly due to the cash spend. If we look a little bit more into the financial numbers, as we can see, we've harvested about 70% more fish during the quarter.
We've increased our revenue significantly 120%, but our production cost at sea almost remained the same, meaning that our fish at sea has been significantly cheaper than quarter, same quarter last year, which is very positive. Production is going in the right direction. There's very, very good measurements in place to keep this positive trend, and the trend has, of course, resulted in us having a lower operating loss compared to last quarter. We expect to continue this trend throughout the coming quarters. So just to repeat a little bit again, so our operating revenues for the second quarter were 86 million NOK, up 120% compared to the same quarter last year.
That's mainly due to an increase in harvest volume, and our cost has gone significantly down. The production cost in Q2 2023 was abnormally high. This was due to our accelerated harvest, so we didn't expect to see a production cost of 77 NOK per kilo, but it's gone down to 47 NOK per kilo, in Q2 2024. We're expecting to see this production cost go down quarter on quarter. Operating loss, of course, then also, was significantly lower quarter compared to quarter, even though we have harvested almost 80% more volume, so that's a positive trend.
As mentioned before, we still have very, very focused on streamlining our business and being in this commercialization phase, where we will have a lot of focus on the market, promoting our fish and positioning our fish, which we'll come back to this. Our total assets came down based from Q1 to Q2, mainly due to our cash spend and our biomass building, but at the same time, our biomass at sea went up, and our biomass value has gone up also. Remember, if there's any questions, there will be a Q&A session in the end of the presentation, so you are now welcome to put in your questions for the Q&A in the chat.
On the financial review, our interest-bearing debt ended at 120 million NOK, up from 104 million NOK in Q2 2023, and our current liabilities also ended at 240 million NOK. The change is mainly driven by the increase in our cash flow from recurring and stable harvesting. Now I'll give the word to Chris Guldberg, who will be talking about and giving a market update, and speaking into our current phase with the commercialization.
Thanks a lot, Christian. Hello, everyone. So on the market update, we're, let me start with, talking about the farmed cod's market potential and the positive market developments we're witnessing at the moment, and clearly demonstrated by several factors. One, and probably the most important, over the last 12 months, we've seen a gradual increase in average sales prices. And we have won selected contracts in selected markets at considerably higher price points as well. And let me draw your attention to the pie chart at the bottom half of the screen here. These are numbers from the Norwegian Seafood Council, confirming that the upward trend of farmed cod.
In the last few years, we've seen increased volumes and also value in exports from Norway. This graph here shows the first half share of fresh cod export from Norway. And it shows that it was a record high share of fresh cod and farmed cod, sorry, at 21%. And this has obviously generated quite a lot of interest as well. It's on the back of increased demand, increased volumes, but also obviously a significant drop in the wild cod quotas going down. And there's one number I'm especially pleased with. If you compare the first half of 2024 with the first half of 2023, we've seen volumes increase 28%. But the value has increased more than the volume.
So the value has increased 51%, which indicates higher prices, and this is a trend we definitely want to continue going forward in the next quarters. We have well also witnessed lots of positive feedback. I joined the company six months ago, and I've been talking to retailers across the world, lots of chefs as well, and there really is lots of positive feedback and lots of positive great endorsements we're getting from chefs and retailers confirming that this is a great product. We see general increase, as I mentioned, for seafood in our key markets. As you all know, the world needs more healthy proteins.
This, combined with a significant drop in wild cod quotas, will result in a lack of available raw materials in the coming quarters. And so we are obviously hoping to continue to build volume. Most importantly, we'll be driving value in the same trend as we've seen if you compare 2023 to 2024. And we have several measures in place. If you could move to the next slide, Christian. We are stepping up our efforts to develop the market and position our product in a premium niche category where it belongs, with corresponding sales prices and contracts. This is definitely our main task at hand going forward.
If you look at the images at the bottom half of the screen there, to the left, we have. So as a lot of you will be aware of, we have launched the brand Snow Cod. So Sirena, our sales and distribution partner, and Norcod have developed this brand and tested it in selected markets with great response. And we're now introducing it to more markets. And this is all about differentiating our product from wild cod and the market prices we are seeing over time on the wild cod market. And we believe this will help to differentiate the product.
We are also working closely with the industry players and cod farmers in Norway and also the Norwegian Seafood Council to leverage the Snow Cod brand and build the market and bring and build a premium brand. Now, on the left there, you can see our business-to-consumer positioning, and it's all about the pure, natural, and delicate, tying in with the origin marketing from Seafood from Norway. The Snow Cod name gives associations to that that fit perfectly with our product: bright white, firm flesh, fresh, pure flavor, all natural. This is the positioning we want to bring to consumers through our business-to-business partners. Now, on the right there, you can see we've called it the white salmon of the sea. And then that's.
The reason we want to do that is we want to position this as something different from wild cod, because this product is very different from wild cod. It belongs more to the salmon category, with the same abilities and capabilities as salmon, and we've seen that for business-to-business customers. It makes sense, they understand the product, and they understand that the pricing has to be at different levels as well from compared to wild cod, and basically what we're trying to do is leverage the salmon story, replicate the salmon story. Our product has the same abilities. We can now deliver high quality, stable deliveries all year round, longer term contracts as well, and also it fits, like salmon does, perfectly with modern consumer trends that we're seeing.
Our cod is perfect for grilling, baking, sushi, sashimi, not least. I mean, that's gonna be really, really important going forward. And also my favorite, I think, of all is the smoked version of the cod, which I think has huge potential. And I think based on all these factors that I've gone through here, and based on my previous seafood industry as well, I think it's safe to say, from Norcod side, that we believe that the market conditions and the fundamentals for farmed cod have never been better. And I think that's quite a fitting lead in and a bridge over to Christian, who will talk you through our outlook going forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Chris, and thank you for the update. We are sure that the white salmon will be a success in the market. So looking a little bit ahead, we are, of course, aware that there's still a lot of uncertainties around the world, on the macro level, but as Chris alluded to, we are in a position where we are certain that the fundamentals for farmed cod being a success, both production-wise and market-wise, are there. As we have said many times before, we're now working with the eighth generation of fry. It's a very, very robust and well growing fish. We have very little, knock on wood, very little challenges with disease and other of that type of form. So production-wise and biology, the fish is looking very, very good.
On the market side of things, we are pushing even harder to get our fish differentiated from the wild. Even though we are expecting and seeing wild, that will also be on a very positive trend. Huge quota quotes are expected, close to 30%, which will undoubtedly have an effect in the market. So market-wise, production-wise, we're very positive about the future. We are looking at having an annual production close to 10,000 tons year in, year out, as we've alluded to before. This is a critical volume for us, so we can maintain our position in the market, delivering fresh cod every week, every month to the market, and at the same time, have a stable and good production.
We've built the biomass for that volume, so we are more or less harvesting and producing the same volume of cod month in, month out, which is very positive for us. Again, Chris was very clear, and now we're really stepping up our efforts to develop the market even faster. As we say, we will do it fast without rushing ourselves, rushingly fast. We've seen the great development of salmon. It's taken many years for salmon. We will do it quicker. We are on the same journey, but we are really increasing the efforts in the market. So that's it from us, from the Q2 presentation.
We've seen that come in some questions in the Q&A, so we will start answering those questions. So first off, an anonymous user are asking. When does Norcod expect to get sashimi grade? I know we have been speaking about sashimi grade previously. In Norway, it's called freezing exemption. It's something that the government gives and the government authorities gives to the industry and the species. That's an ongoing project underway to get this done, and we still expect it to happen here in Q4. That's at least what we've been put in sight. So we hope that will flourish.
For us, you know, to have a sashimi grade fish, it's been tested, as we told earlier, it's been tested in Japan and many other places. They label it, they use it themselves as sashimi grade, but in order to have that from the authorities would be a big, would be a great achievement and would be a big marketing thing, to use. Yep. Then we have, Knut-Ivar Bakken, he's asking, "How much volumes are you planning to harvest in Q3 and 2024 and second half of twenty-four? We are planning to harvest approximately, four thousand tons combined in the two quarters, so we'll end up, between eight and a half and nine thousand tons for the year. That's our expectation.
Then we have the question again from an anonymous user: "When do you expect to reach break even, and for how long do you expect your cash and credit to be sufficient?" That's always a good question. We are trying as quick as possible to get to break even. That's one of our really, really big milestones. With the current market trends and on pricing in the market and our production cost, we are hoping within the next twelve to eighteen months to reach break even. But again, there's a lot of factors playing in, especially the market, as we're looking at the moment, but of course, also production factors. What else do we have here? Which retailers endorse the Norcod cod?
A lot, to say the least, especially in Southern Europe and Western Europe. I think we have nine different retailers in Spain who has Norcod in the stores. We have several in France, who has both, mainly has, filet and loins. So a lot of retailers, both direct and indirect, are having Norcod in the shops today. We have here. What volumes do you expect for twenty twenty-five? Anonymous user is asking. We will harvest approximately 10,000 tons in twenty twenty-five. That's the forecast. Anonymous user is writing here: You mentioned the higher than normal sea temperatures in the mid and northern Norway. Have you seen any issues with growth and mortality? Do you anticipate any issues during August and September? Again, the sea temperatures in the middle of northern Norway are abnormal high.
The highest so far in all our production time has been 15 degrees. At the moment, we're experiencing 17.5 degrees. It doesn't sound like much, but it has an effect on the cod. The cod slows down and doesn't eat as much, therefore, which we've seen previously, the growth flattens out a bit, but it'll then increase significantly once the sea temperatures come down. For how long it'll last? Good question. I don't have the perfect weather forecast, but we are expecting this to last for a couple of weeks still. Do you expect to see lower costs in twenty twenty-five due to lower feed prices or mainly from a more efficient value chain? We're expecting actually from both.
Right now, we have seen a downward trend in the last two quarters on the feed prices. We don't know if this will continue, but of course, a lower feed price helps us. About 65% of our total cost is from feed. But our efficiency and our knowledge on the cod has also helped us significantly. We can see from the cycle we just completed at Jamnungen, the big leaps, both biology-wise, and production-wise, we've done. Having a feed conversion rate below 1 is a really big achievement, and an economical one at 1.6. You know, if we can maintain that in the future, we are in a good place. Knut-Ivar Bakken is asking: You have 42 million NOK available liquidity, and you're going into a season with the strongest biomass growth.
How long is your liquidity runway? We still have a decent runway, mainly due to our increased credit facilities with DNB. As I alluded to earlier, from September, our credit will be increased with 75 million NOK, which will, of course, give us liquidity. Also, we will be going into a season where we have again 4,000 tons of harvest, which will be more or less the same as we will produce. So we will go into more or less a break-even production harvesting cycle. I think there are no more new questions. So again, from everybody at Norcod, we would like to thank you for joining our Q&A, and we're all available, so if you have any further questions or anything else, please reach out to us. Thank you very much.